


Master and Apprentice

by EldritchLyric



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Battle of Mustafar (Star Wars), Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Minor Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:35:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28377042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EldritchLyric/pseuds/EldritchLyric
Summary: Another look at the Battle of Mustafar between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader. A look into Obi-Wan's mind and how he felt about the fall of his brother. Heavily inspired by the RotS Novelization
Relationships: Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Kudos: 3





	Master and Apprentice

The ride aboard Padme's personal Nubian starship was one of the longest that Obi-Wan had experienced over this long war.

Even now, he could feel the dark void in the force centered on Coruscant spreading a shadow across the entire galaxy. Age-old plans of the Sith Order finally coming to fruition with the slaughter of the entire Jedi Order.

His very being was restless with the truths unraveled within the Jedi temple.

Anakin, his brother, had fallen.

Slaughtered younglings. Children of the Force and without mercy.

Looking outwards, Obi-Wan dove into the currents of the Force that up to now had been a flowing current of light, searching for his brother in all but name.

The Force was no longer a stream, but instead a tidepool of dark waters, threatening any who dipped within to fall hopelessly into darkness.

Preparing himself for what lay ahead, Obi-Wan sought out the bright beacon of light that was Grandmaster Yoda. He too was preparing for the perilous fight against the now-Emperor and powerful Sith Lord. Tragedy, terror, and an underlying feeling of hopelessness filled his every sense as friends and respected elders met their end in the force.

And through all this, his focus centered on a single point growing ever-closer.

His Padawan. His trust. His pride. His brother.

Anakin.

He felt the war within Anakin. His aura was overwhelmingly dark in the force and it tore daggers through his heart to see the truth he already knew.

But even now there was a faint glimmer of hope. The light that Obi-Wan had always seen in Anakin was still there, surrounded by the Dark Side and tearing itself apart, but it was there.

Things would never be the same, no, Sidious had seen to that. But with Padme's help, Obi-Wan would reach Anakin and bring him back to the light.

He had to.

The starship shuddered as it pulled itself out of hyperspace. Obi-Wan waited for the ship to land on whatever planet Sidious had sent Anakin off to after what happened at the Jedi Temple.

Preparing himself for any possibility, including having to fight Anakin directly to destroy whatever darkness had invaded his heart, Obi-Wan reached out to Padme and the child she held within her.

He reached out to Yoda, trying to sense if he had engaged the Emperor yet and knew that the battle had begun on Coruscant.

Padme's skiff touched down on the landing pad below and Obi-Wan sensed Padme run to meet the dark maelstrom of energy and the force that was Anakin.

Now that he was closer, he realized with a spike of fear quickly repressed that the light within Anakin was losing.

Leaving the fresher where he was hidden, he prepared himself for what he now knew would inevitably be a drawn-out battle with Anakin.

He felt the anguish Padme felt, the fear creeping in and giving her doubts of just who stood before her. And with an explosion in the force Obi-Wan watched in horror as the light was extinguished leaving only a black force presence behind.

Finally revealing himself, Obi-Wan stared down his old padawan as Anakin looked to him with anger in his eyes. In this, Obi-Wan realized his great mistake, Anakin reached out with the force to choke Padme for a perverted sense of betrayal.

"Let her go, Anakin."

Anakin responded with a snarl and yellow eyes. "You will not take her from me!"

"Let her go!"

Releasing his grip on the force, he let Padme drop to the metal landing pad with a thud and knelt beside Padme's unconscious body, searching for a pulse. Faint and weak, but there.

"Anakin… Anakin what have you done?"

Anakin's force presence flared. "You turned her against me."

Obi-wan looked at his brother. "You have done that yourself."

Anakin exploded with violent energy, throwing off his cloak. "You will not take her from me!"

Even now, Obi-Wan was hesitant to shrug off his own. "Your anger and lust for power have already done that. Let me get Padme help."

"She stays with me."

"Anakin, you have let this dark lord to twist your mind, until now…"

"Don't lecture me Obi-Wan. I do not fear the dark side like you. My master has shown me freedom from the Jedi. You would have me a slave to the council."

Obi-Wan looked beseechingly at his old friend. "Anakin, I'll I've ever done has been to help you"

Anakin's eyes were flames. "Liar! All you've done is hold me back. Already, I've brought peace to my Empire."

"Peace? What peace? This destruction you've wrought with blood is no peace. You've betrayed the Republic you swore to defend!"

From Anakin's hand came a blue saber. "Don't make me kill you. If you will not follow me, then you must be destroyed."

Obi-Wan sighed.

Shrugging off his cloak and lighting his own sword, Obi-Wan readied himself. "Only a Sith deals in absolutes. I will do what I must."

"You will try."

Both force-users leapt into the air, meeting blades with a flurry of swings and the screams of volcanoes erupting around them.

Immediately Obi-Wan as on the defense. Relying on the the lightsaber form of Soresu to combat Anakin's aggressive movements like so many times before in sparring, Obi-Wan let himself be pushed back towards the control center of this mining operation.

But this deadly encounter was quite unlike any spar he'd had with Anakin before.

Obi-Wan dipped into the Force that he had served reliably for so many years to bolster his strength and reflexes as the onslaught that was his former padawan continued to move on him.

Flurries of lightsaber strikes, parries, and counters flew by faster than any being could see, let alone react to.

How was Obi-Wan supposed to contend against the strength of the chosen one?

Anakin was obviously stronger in the force, no one was more sure of this than Obi-Wan who had seen and helped him grow throughout his training.

With a series of strikes, Anakin came strikingly close to Obi-Wan's saber-arm, scorching his tunic slightly.

Something had to change, and it had to change quick.

With a quick movement, Obi-Wan reached out with the force, lashing out with a telekinetic push matched by one from the chosen one.

Pushing as much energy as he dared into his force abilities, a violent reaction threw them both back across the room.

In a flash Anakin was back across the room, swinging his saber even faster than before.

But Obi-Wan, master of Soresu and one of the most accomplished sword fighters in the Jedi Council, had fought and killed General Gracious who fought with 4 lightsabers and reflexes greater even than those of Anakin. All Obi-Wan had to do was weather the storm until Anakin ran out of force reserves from the taxing battle.

And so he led Anakin through the complex mining operation on Mustafar. Through lava storm and eruption, across lakes of fire, even atop the backs of droids did they meet blades.

After thousands of hours training and sparring together. After hundreds of battles and rescues and encounters. They were identical in every blow. Matched in every way. They knew each other better than brothers, more intimately than lovers; they were complementary halves of a single warrior.

In all this Obi-Wan gave up ground, even in the small chances he saw for counter-attack, Obi-Wan would not take them. He could not slay his brother.

This was why the Jedi did not allow attachments. It was why many Jedi masters did not stay close to their Padawan after knighthood like Anakin and Obi-Wan had done. It was a weakness that lead to pain and suffering all too often.

Gathering his surroundings, he saw the bank where he would lay a final trap for what remained of his former friend. For Obi-Wan saw now that little if anything remained of Anakin. His heart broke as he looked and saw the boy that his master rescued on Tattooine. So pure and full of life. Now replaced with the thing before him.

"I have failed you Anakin. I have failed you."

What remained of Anakin was incensed. "I should have know the Jedi were planning on taking over."

Obi-Wan had to try one last time. To try and save the boy Qui-Gon had died to save all those years ago on Naboo. "Anakin, Chancellor Palpatine is evil! He has orchestrated this whole war as a bid to gain power. The Jedi have protected the Republic for more than a thousand years!"

Anakin looked self-assured in the lies of the Chancellor now. "As peacekeepers. Now the Jedi have changed. They are no different than the Sith, only hypocrites who pretend they are different from the rest of the galaxy. It is the Jedi who are evil."

Obi-Wan did not know his heart could break more than it already had. "Well, then you are lost!"

Anakin's droid swept around Obi-Wan, blocking him off from the shore, leaving lava and the pits of fire as his only exit. Anakin smirked at Obi-Wan and readied his blade for the strikes that would bring him victory.

"This is the end for you, Master," Anakin said. "I wish it were otherwise."

"Yes, Anakin, so do I," Obi-Wan said before leaping past Anakin with a thrust of his blade.

Anakin was forced to lean aside to deflect the blade from piercing him, missing the swipe that would have cut Obi-Wan's legs clean off.

Obi-Wan readied his blade, knowing Anakin's only next move. The same one he had just made and was now ready for. "It's over Anakin, I have the high ground."

Anakin's lamp yellow eyes glared with hatred at Obi-Wan from where he stood atop the mining droid. Obi-Wan saw what he did before Anakin had even jumped.

In that moment, Obi-Wan saw the full glory that was a Sith Lord. Pride and arrogance that had led to the downfall of one before. Obi-Wan's heart hardened. He hadn't lied when he told Yoda that he could not kill Anakin.

Anakin was dead.

Darth Vader, Sith Lord remained.

Obi-Wan had killed a Sith Lord once before.

Obi-Wan whirled his lightsaber around to party an attack that did not come. Bisecting Vader at the knees and then cleaving off the arm holding his lightsaber, watching as Anakin's body tumbled towards the lava below him.

So close to the lava his clothes and glove on his mechanical hand instantly started to burn and dissolve.

Obi-Wan reached down and grabbed the lightsaber of Jedi Knight, Anakin Skywalker. The echoes of the horrors done with it very recently were present at the front of his mind.

He looked down at his fallen brother and wept. Flames licked at the body below.

"You were the chosen one! It was said you would destroy the Sith, not join them. Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness."

The anguish in Obi-Wan's voice fell on the deaf ears of a monster.

"You were my brother, Anakin," cried Obi-Wan Kenobi. "I loved you."

Obi-Wan felt the force presence of a being strong and powerful with the dark side approaching from orbit.

Yoda had failed.

Below him, Darth Vader burst into flame.

"I hate you," he screamed.

Obi-Wan looked down. It would be a mercy to kill him.

He was not feeling merciful.

With one last look into the face of his brother, he left Darth Vader for dead. He could not walk down that black beach and finish off the Sith Lord. He was Obi-Wan Kenobi. He was a Jedi. He would not kill an unarmed man no matter what he had done.

So Obi-Wan ran back to the landing platform. Desperate to save the one thing that Anakin had sacrificed everything, even his very soul, to save. He ran for Padme.

C-3PO was already on the landing ramp of Padme's starship. "Master Kenobi! Please hurry!"

"Where's Padme?"

"Already inside, sir, but she is badly hurt."

Beside them the Chancellor's personal shuttle landed on the platform.

Another Sith Lord had arrived. Obi-Wan ran up the ramp and into the cockpit. Firing up the engines, the mirror-finished skiff flew far away from Mustafar.

Obi-Wan did not look back.


End file.
